Sunday, April 13, 2014

Broken Outlets and Ballet

Another crazy week in Seoul.

Getting ready for Buddha's birthday!

So last week, there was actually an earthquake near(ish) Seoul. I didn't feel it or anything, but apparently it woke people up with their beds shaking. I didn't notice anything strange in my apartment until the weekend, when I went to plug in my toaster oven.

Saw this crack. And then the plug wouldn't
go into the socket...

So I asked my handler to call the landlady, who came to my apartment with a giant glue gun. Upon inspection, she saw she could not fix it and called an ahjussi. They fiddled around with it and left. I walked into the kitchen to see this:

whoooooo fun times

And then, about 20 minutes later, the ahjussi came back with a new outlet cover (I guess he went to the store?), messed around a bit, and then triumphantly called me into the kitchen to show me his handywork.

Then I had to clean up the dust... ew

Looking like a student with my new backpack!

I'm really busy now on Tues-Thurs with Korean classes, but I managed to find interesting things to snap photos of.

Vera Bradley fashion

The patterns are cute as purses, but I think
they're a bit odd as shirts...

Here are some photos of random food

The science teacher who sits next to me
always brings in a bunch of these crackers

it's just really fried and tightly packed together
rice.

Sarah and I got dakgalbi for dinner. It's a spicy
chicken dish that has ricecakes and veggies in it

and after you finish, they make fried rice with the
sauce. IT'S DELICIOUS

Before Korean class, Sarah and I were wandering and decided we wanted a drink, so we headed into this random coffee shop. Little did we know, IT WAS A CAT CAFE.

with cool stairs

On Thursday, my handler gave me some sort of filled ricecake. I'm not sure what was in it, but it was good.

These sometimes appear in my lunch. I have
no clue what they are, but they are DISGUSTING

Then I bought macaroons for my co workers,
since everyone randomly brings small
treats into the office.

I also had a nice day Thursday, in terms of teaching. We played a writing game with the 5th graders that involves them unscrambling sentences. The kids got really into it and were excited, and they did really well, so I was happy. My co teacher and I were walking back to the office and I said "It's so fun to see them get excited to write the sentence!" And she goes, "Frankly speaking..." At which point I was quite concerned that she was going to tell me she didn't really like it or something.

But she said, "Frankly speaking, they're quite lazy in their classroom and they do not like to study. But when they are in the English room, they work very hard and they want to try. I think it is thanks to your influence!" Now, I don't know about that, but as a teacher, it's one of the nicest things I could have heard! It made me very, very happy!

Flowers in full bloom on my walk on Friday

Came home to this on my door. Pretty sure 17
toppings is not NY style...

Apparently it was National Sibiings Day. Here's to mine!

More flowers on Saturday!

Kimbap and Omurice with Sarah!

On Saturday, Sarah, Lauren and I headed out to the ballet!

This is Seoul being deceptive. This looks like
a short walk, right? NOPE, it was like 15-20 minutes
away...

But it was worth it!! The show was beautiful and I miss ballet so much. The music was so beautiful and it was great to see the Korean National Ballet's take on the show. They added a lot more Rothbart manipulation, which was really interesting. It made it less like "wow I randomly ran into this swan queen at this lake!" and more "I feel a strange force drawing me to this lake and I don't know why!" which was cool. It was a bad plan on Rothbart's part tho, cause we were treated with the "Love Conquers All!" ending where Sigfried and Odette's love defeats the evil.

It was a lovely show, and I'm excited because the theater is also having Giselle in June and my favorite opera, Turandot, in October!

The program was really cool and actually
explained some of the mime used in Swan Lake
(in Korean, sadly, though thankfully I know
most of it already!)

The displays were cool!

I've slowly been adding more postcards and posters to my
wall as decorations. These are what I've gathered just in Korea!

I spent Sunday working on some Korean homework and making an example role play for my students. The ones in the book are kind of lame, so Young Ah and I want the kids to get creative and change the ending. Aaaah the things my friends and I do for our students.

Here's the link: watch it if you must: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu3vXnjFgrI

And for a change of pace (and since it's still cherry blossoms season), here's an indie korean song from the lovely and talented Busker Busker.

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About Me

I'm a short Italian girl with big dreams and a passion for travelling. I love Phantom of the Opera, video games, chocolate, my twin sister, and making witty remarks and funny faces.
I'm currently teaching English at an elementary school in Seoul, South Korea.